“I think the colony is deeper in the East than in California, and that’s primarily because of the number of horses,” Stevens said. “I’m not saying there’s a lack of talented riders in California, but there is a lack of opportunity. And if you’re not getting opportunities, how do you improve, or even show what talent you’ve got? It’s tough to make things happen in a five-horse field.

“When I came down from Seattle nobody knew who I was,” Stevens said. “I started getting opportunities on longshots, but in those days the fields were big enough that you might ride a 15-1 shot that had a chance, and if you put it in the right spot you could win. That’s what caught people’s attention.”

Stevens maintains it is not only geographic isolation and field size that retards the development of talent out West.

“Jockeys today are faced with the super stables in California – the Bafferts, the O’Neills, the Sadlers, even Peter Miller now,” Stevens said. “If you’re not tied in with one of those barns you’re not going to get that opportunity. We all know how the game goes: We see the same guys riding the favorites in every race, favorites win about 30 percent of the time, and people look at winning percentages when they pick their riders. How do you break into that?

“Mario Gutierrez is a good example,” he said. “Doug O’Neill and Paul Reddam gave him a shot with I’ll Have Another and other horses, and he came through. But there weren’t any other barns behind him, so he left, even though I don’t think we’ve seen more than the tip of the iceberg in terms of his ability.

“I’ve had several young riders ask me about coming out to California,” Stevens said. “I tell them they’d better come with a big stable, otherwise they’re probably not going to get the opportunities they deserve. I’m not knocking Southern California racing, but we are on an island, and it doesn’t look like things are going to change soon.”

Bejarano, Rosario, and Talamo are among the top 10 on the National Earnings List for Southern California Jockeys. But Rosario is a Californian no more.